Lubrication of internal combustion engines and the like



5 Sheets-Sheet 1 F. KNIGHT ETAL g Q @Q May 4, 1965 LUBBICATION OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES ANDTHE LIKE Filed July 16, 1962 May 4, 1965 F. KNIGHT ETAL LUBRICATION OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES AND THE LIKE Filed July 16, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 a 6 90 6 may 3 6/ J 7 v w w MWJ 0 w 7 w a 10 i m Q. 6 n

M4 0 o HH- 0 /FZL May 4, 1965 F. KNIGHT ETAL LUBRICATION OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES AND THE LIKE Filed July 16, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fiqi May 4, 1965 F. KNIGHT ETAL LUBRICATION OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES AND THE LIKE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July 16, 1962 42\( Figi INVENTORJ Frank Knight BY R/chard R0 LanJ/e55 AWORNEY United States Patent 3,181,652 LUBRICATION OF INTERNAL COMBUSTEQN ENGINES AND THE LIKE Frank Knight, Copster Green, Blackburn, and Richard R. Landless, Withnell, Blackburn, England, assignors to Loxhains Engineering Works Limited, a company of Great Britain Filed July 16, 1962, Ser. No. 210,030 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Juiy 18, 1961, 25,936/61, 25,937/61 6 Claims. (Cl. 1846) This invention is concerned with the lubrication of the cylinders and pistons of internal combustion engines, in particular marine engines and similar large diesel engines, but the invention could be applied to other mechanisms where similar problems of timed pressure lubrication arise.

It is known in some types of marine engine to provide around the engine cylinder a number of so-called quills by which, under the influence of an oil pressure pump, lubricant is forced into the cylinder at intervals. For efiicient working these intervals should be regularly timed and the amount of oil ejected from a quill after each interval should be uniform. It is found however that with the quills as hitherto known, although an intended delivery of oil at the outlet port of the pump may be carefully timed in relation to the engine cycle, the ejection of lubricant into the engine cylinder through the quill does not follow that exact timing. Theoretically, the best lubrication effect is obtained if the time of injection of the oil into the cylinder coincides with a particular stage in the movement of the piston, for example at a stage where the oil can be ejected into the space between two rings on the piston. In the known arrangements, the lubricant has had to be under a sufiicient pressure at the time of ejection to force open a valve in the quill which was held closed not only by spring means but also by the gas pressure in the cylinder acting on the outer side of the valve, which gas pressure varied in its effect on the said valve according to whether the piston was opposite the quill or not. Also, as said valve has always been at some distance from the final outlet of the quill, although the oil passing the valve might be under a given pressure, that pressure was lost as the ejection oil made its way along the quill to the final outlet.

To prevent this loss of pressure would require a building up of pressure in the lubricant in the passage between the valve and said final outlet but, before this could take place the piston would have moved past the outlet and the pressure lost so that the oil merely dribbles into the free space above the piston and is wasted. Moreover, when the lubricant pump has passed over the delivery peak, the said load on the valve has prematurely closed the valve and set up a back flow in the lubricant which prevents a full discharge of the oil from the pump. All this, together with the elasticity effect of the lubricant in the conduits between the pump and the quill has resulted both in uneven timing of the actual oil injection into the cylinder and also in irregular amounts of lubricant being supplied by the quill. Also, the possibility of oil remaining in the passages between the said valve and the final outlet of the quill has allowed of such oil gradually baking and hardening and eventually blocking the outlet altogether.

Another disadvantage of the quills as hitherto known is that they have been so mounted in the engine that if they have had to be removed for repair or replacement the cooling water in the cylinder jacket, unless previously drained off, would flow out through the orifice out of Patented May 4, 1955 which the quill was taken, and would also flow into the cylinder itself through the lubricant discharge hole. This is of course undesirable and has made it very diflicult if not impossible to change a quill whilst the engine is running.

The present invention has for its object to overcome all these difiiculties and to ensure an exact timing and exact regularity in the injection of lubricant into the cylinder, as well as making it possible to remove and replace a quill without stopping the engine and without the escape of cooling water.

The invention provides a quill in which the valve and its seat are at the final outlet of the quill and on which the pressure in the engine cylinder biases the valve to the open position (as distinct from the known arrangements when the said pressure loads the valve in the closed position), a check valve being provided at the entrance to the quill whereby, when a working pressure has built up in the oil system the quill contains between said check valve at the inlet and the closed valve at the outlet a quantity of oil at that working pressure. The outlet valve is so loaded (adjustably) that any further build up of pressure between said two valves in the quill during the feed phase of the oil-pump cycle opens both the valves and forces out of the quill at the outlet valve the same volume of oil as is forced in at the said check valve by the pump.

In a lubrication system according to this invention therefore, oil is held against back-flow out of the quill and so as to be under a pressure within the quill such that any further oil forced into the quill by the pump opens the discharge valve and causes an equal amount of oil to be ejected from the quill through the then open valve. Accordingly the intervals of ejection from the quill coincide exactly with the timing of the peak load intervals of the pump.

According to this invention also for preventing any return flow of oil the conduit from the oil pump to the quill includes check valves at intervals in addition to the check valve at the entrance to the quill.

According to a further feature of the invention the quill comprises an outer sleeve or housing mounted in the jacket and liner of a water-cooled engine cylinder so as to bridge the water space between them, and an inner eartridge or carrier within said sleeve in which the valve and its closing spring are mounted, said inner and outer parts or one of them being formed to provide an oil channel and reservoir open at the inner end to an inwards facing shoulder or shoulders on the valve and closed at the outer end by a check valve for the oil inlet conduit.

The improved quills will usually be adopted in combination with a distributor comprising a ported rotor and a ported stator in the form of a housing, these two parts fitting each other closely but relatively rotatably, means such as a ratchet mechanism for rotating the rotor step by step in synchronism with the working cycle of the engine or other apparatus being lubricated, an oil feed pipe entering said housing and leading to an axial part in the rotor, a plurality of oil delivery ports each leading from the housing to one of the said quills and adapted to register their inner ends successively with a radial port in the rotor between the latters successive steps of movement, and a check valve in said feed pipe adjacent the housing, with or without a check valve in each said delivery port.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the mounting of one of the improved quills in an engine cylinder;

FIG. 2 is an axial section through the quill shown in FIG; 1; 1

FIG. 3 is a view corresponding to FIG. 2 but illustrating an alternative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4- is a side view; 7

FIG, is an end view looking to the left of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a vertical section on the line 6- 6 of FIG. 4; FIG. 7 is a vertical section on the line 7-7 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 8 is a sectional plan. a

Referring first to FIG. 1 a cylinder liner 1 of one cylinder of an engine'is shown for example, a part of a marine diesel engine, spaced from which is the water jacket wall 2 defining a water space 3 between itself and said liner. Mounted in the liner 1 and wall 2 so as to bridge said space 3, is a lubricator quill which comprises an outer casing 4 having a reduced inner end 5 screw-threaded to screw into the cylinder liner 1, and the outer end 4 of the part 4 is screw-threaded to receive a gland nut 6 which compresses a resilient packing'or seal 7 between suitable retaining washers 8 within a housing formed in the water jacket wall 2. A sealing ring 9 is interposed between the inner end of the part 4 of the quill and the outer face of the cylinder liner '1. It willbe seen that by these means, that the quill can be mounted in a removable manner for interchange with. others and, as

will appear fronrthe following description, the interior parts of the quill may be removed and replaced from the outer body 4 without disturbance" of the part4 in the engine, and therefore without allowing any escape of the cooling water from the space 3.

As shown in FIG. 2 the main body "4 of the quill has an interior bore 10 which accommodates a cartridge 11, this Cartridge being retained in the quill by a nut'12 screwing into the mouth of the body of the quill, and the outer projecting end of the cartridge 11'is adapted for connection to a lubricant supply conduit 13 by a unionnut 14 and packing ring 15 of normal type.

In the inner end of the cartridge 11 there is a co-axial bore 16 which accommodates a valve housing 17 formed at its inner end with a valve outlet or port 18. Slidable within the valve housing 17 is a valve needle 19,'the outer part 19 of which (that is to say the part inwards of the cartridge '11) is of largerf'diarneter and approximates to the diameter of the bore in the housing 17. The part of the needle 19 extending towards the outlet 18 is again reduced in diameter and terminates in a conical valve head 19 to seat against the inner edge of thevalve outlet 13. In order to urge the valve head 19* against its seating a compression spring 20 is provided re-acting between the bottom end of the cavity or bore 16 in the cartridge and a collar 21 on an open-ended bush 21, one

v rection tending to open the valve. The cartridge 11 is formed with subsidiary conduits 29. and 30 to allow of the movement of air behind the needle as it opens and closes. V

' Referring now to FIG. 3 there is a somewhat rnodified form of embodiment, in which the inner end of the needle 19 re-acts against the hollow end 31 of a control rod or tube 31, the outer end 'of which is influenced by the compression spring 32 the degreeo'f'compression of which may be varied'by adjusting the axial position of the nut 33. Also in this case the degree of opening of the needle a valve may be varied by adjusting the axial position of the ported plug 34 which acts as a stop to meet a shoulder 31 on the outer end of the control rod 31.

In this case pressure oil enters at the conduit 35, past the check valve 36-and along the axial groove 37 in the quill cartridge toradial ports 38 into the needle housing so as to re-act against the shoulders of the needle as in the first described example. If the 'oil pressure is sufliciently high its re-action on the shoulder where the valve changes diameter displaces the valve axially against the spring pressure to open the valve and allow oil topass into the cylinder. The valve diameter and the diameter of the port in'the cylinder wall is very small, say for example 2 mm.

As in the first-described example the quill cartridge 39 may be unscrewed out of the sleeve or housing and withdrawn completely without there being any breach of the water space between the cylinder liner and outer wall of the water jacket so that the valve may be redrawn will be in very small quantities, easily manageable or even run towaste.

In both cases the needle valve 19 is held closed only 7 by-its spring loading. The compression and explosion pressures in the cylinder tend to open the valve but are normally resisted by the spring. Since the valve outlet is small the spring is quite adequate to resist the said pressures. Between the closed valve outlet and the nonreturn or check valve the said longitudinal oil passage end of which re-acts against a shoulder fonthe valve 7 needle 19.

The opening movement of the valve 19, is limited by a pad'22, which may be interchangeable with others of different axial length so as to vary the maximum opening of the needle and between such pad and the end of the needle housing 17 is a hydraulic leather 2 3 to seal off the bottom end of the said cavity 16. w V

The cartridge 11 is formed with, a co-axialbore 24 extending from its outer end, which leads to a transverse bore 25 which again leads to a non-co-axial longitudinal bore 26 having a port 27 communicating with a radial.

port 28 in the needle housing 17. Such port 28' opens into the annular space between the inner wall of the.

housing 17 and the body-of the need1e 19. It will be obvious therefore that as pressure oil is supplied through the conduit 13 to the passages 24, 25 and 26 and the ports 27 and 28 pressure is built'up in the'needle housing which re-acts outwardly against the shoulders on the needle and may overcome the resistance of. the spring 20 to open the valve. It willbe seen also that the pressure gas from the interior of the cylinder meets the valve 'end in thezdiin the quill constitutes an isolated chamber Which,when the apparatus is in working condition, is full of oil under pressure, the pressure being equal to thatin the oil supply pipe whereby, as the pressure pump surg'es and feeds oil into the systern, oil passing through the check'valve into said space drives back the valve 19 immediately to find an escape into the cylinder timed with the pressure phase of the pump. The amount ejected from said space into the cylinder is equal to that fed into. the space by the pump. 7 p

In practice the improved quill, or a number of them, will be used in association with anintermittent oil pump and an improved distributor, an example of .Which is illustrated in FIGS. 4-8.

The distributor shown is mounted on a box-like casing 41 mounted on a fabricated support 42v to which it is secured by screws 43. In this casing 41 is a sliding plunger 44, in a liner 4 5, operated as an impulse pump, being reciprocated by means of a radial arm 46 clamped onto a shaft or spindle 47 which is mounted in bearings in the casing walls. This shaft 47 carries a further .radial arm 48 (FIG; 7 )*linked by the member .49 to wheel 52. a

The main shaft or'spindle 47 extends out of the easing 41 at one side (the left-hand side in FIG. 4) where it carries a radial arm 55 the free end of which is provided with a cam follower roller 56 to ride on a pump can 57, and this radial arm 55 is restrained by the tension spring 58 so as always to hold such roller 55 in contact with the periphery of the cam 57. As will be appreciated, in each rotation of the cam 57 the radial arm 55 is displaced, (radially upwards in FIG. 5), and thereby displaces the two radial arms 46 and 48, the former downwards in FIG. 6 to operate the plunger 44 and create a surge of oil in the outlet pipe 59, and the latter to the left in FIG. '7 to trail the pawl 53 back to the next tooth of the ratchet Wheel 52. As the roller 56 leaves the hump of cam 57 the spring 58 asserts itself to return the arms 46 and 48 to their initial position, during which movement pawl 53 steps the ratchet wheel 52 round by one tooth. A non-return check valve 59 is provided in the outlet from the pump to avoid a backtlow of oil.

The said trunnion 51 is part of a distributor rotor 60 which rotates as a close fit in a housing 61 secured to one face of the said box-like part 41, there being an end plate 62 for the housing 61 located between that housing and the casing 41, which end plate carries a sealing ring 63 to seal one end of the rotor 65). There is a further and thicker end cover 64 for the housing 61, which carries a sealing ring 65 to seal the other end of the rotor 60 and in this end cover 64 is a radial port 66 which at its outer end is in communication with the delivery end of the conduit 59 leading from the pump in the casing 41.

The rotor 60 has a co-axial port 70 receiving the oil from the said radial port 66 and passing it to a further radial port 71 in the rotor terminating in its outer periphery and in register with one or another of a series of delivery ports '72 each communicating with a delivery conduit '73 leading to a respective lubricant quill. In a typical large marine engine there might be 12 quills on the engine cylinder and in such case there would be 12 delivery conduits 73 in the distributor each going to its respective quill. In general there will be one or more non-return valves in each delivery conduit 73.

The various ports 72 are so arranged that in each position of rest of the shaft 51 one or other of the radial outlet ports '72 is in register with the radial distributor port 66, so that in such position the pump may deliver oil to a selected quill. The rotation of the shaft 47 is timed in relation to the actuation of the pump so that, between peak periods of pressure in the pump outlet the rotor 64) advances one stage so that, at the next peak of pressure the oil can be fed to the next delivery port 73 in the sequence.

As the pump is operated to give a surge of lubricant the distributor is timed to pass the surging oil to a particular quill, and the pressure conditions in the system are such that the oil impelled into the system by the pump causes the ejection from the valve 18 of the same quantity of oil at substantially the same moment of time. Therefore the lubrication of the parts may be accurately controlled and it is possible for example to ensure the discharge of lubricant on to a piston between two of its rings. Furthermore there is little danger of the outlet from the quill becoming blocked by baked oil.

Accordingly, the timing of the oil ejection is synchronised with the pump cycle, and the amount of oil ejected at each peak load is substantially uniform.

What we claim is:

1. In an internal combustion engine having a cylinder characterized by a cylinder liner wall with a port therein, and a water jacket wall defining a water space between it and said liner wall, a lubricator quill for said cylinder, said quill comprising an elongated casing mounted in said walls and bridging said space, said casing having an open inner end communicating with said port, said casing also having an outer end projecting outside said water jacket wall, means sealing said casing to said water jacket wall whereby to prevent cooling water in said space from leaking out around said casing, a cartridge removably disposed in said casing and accessible from outside of said water jacket wall, a lubricant supply channel extending lengthwise along the interior of said quill from a point outside of said water jacket wall, said channel defined at least in part by said cartridge, means for connecting said channel to lubricant supply, said connecting means including a check valve interposed between said channel and said supply, said cartridge also comprising a chamber connecting with said channel and having a valve outlet communicating with said port, a valve seat surrounding said valve outlet, an axially movable valve in said chamber adapted to close off said outlet when seated on said seat, spring means normally biasing said valve into engagement with said seat, and a shoulder on said valve exposed to lubricant contained in said chamber, means for subjecting said lubricant supply to a pressure to open simultaneously said check valve and said axially movable valve to inject under pressure a selected amount of lubricant into said cylinder through said port, said injected amount being equal to the quantity of lubricant forced past said check Valve by said pressure, said injected amount further being delivered in phase with said internal combustion engine cycle and at the same pres-sure as said supply means.

2. The combination defined by claim 1 wherein said channel is defined in part by said casing.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein said channel comprises an axially extending bore disposed wholly within said cartridge.

4. In an internal combustion engine having a cylinder characterized by a cylinder liner wall with a port therein and a water jacket wall defining a water space between it and said liner wall, a lubricator quill for said cylinder, said quill comprising an elongated casing mounted in said walls and bridging said space, said casing having an open inner end disposed in said port, said casing also having an outer end projecting out of said water jacket wall, sealing means interposed between said casing and said liner wall whereby to prevent water in said space from leaking into said cylinder, said quill also including a cartridge removably disposed in said casing and accessible from outside of said water jacket wall, a lubricant supply channel extending lengthwise along the interior of said quill from a point outside of said water jacket wall, said channel defined at least in part by said cartridge, means for connecting said channel to a lubricant supply, said connecting means including a check valve interposed between said channel and said supply, said cartridge also comprising a chamber connecting with said channel and having a valve outlet communicating with said port, a valve seat surrounding said outlet, an axially movable valve in said chamber adapted to close off said outlet when seated on said seat, spring means normally biasing said axially movable valve into engagement with said seat, and a shoulder on said valve exposed to lubricant contained in said chamber, means for subjecting said lubricant supply to a predetermined pressure sufiicient to open said check valve and said axially movable valve simultaneously to inject under pressure a selected amount of lubricant into said cylinder through said port, said injected amount being in phase with said pressure means and at the same pressure as applied to said supply, said amount further being equal to the amount of lubricant forced past said check valve.

5. The combination of claim 4 wherein said casing is of reduced diameter at said inner end and said inner end is screwed into said liner wall, and further wherein said cartridge may be removed by withdrawing it out of said outer end of said casing.

6. The combination of claim 4 further wherein said cartridge is removable from said casing without removing said casing from said walls, whereby said cartridge References Cited by the Egaminer UNITED S ATES PATENTS 1,183,582 5/16 Maxwell et a1. 184-3 1,735,718 11/29 Attendu 137 5o9 LAVERNE D, GEIGER, Primary Examiner.

MILTON KAUFMAN, Examiner.

Pawlikowski 184-18 Baur 137-509 Rowland et a1. 184-35 Wood 137-509 X Love 184-6 

1. IN AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE HAVING A CYLINDER CHARACTERIZED BY A CYLINDER LINER WALL WITH A PORT THEREIN, AND A WATER JACKET WALL DEFINING A WATER SPACE BETWEEN IT AND SAID LINER WALL, A LUBRICATOR QUILL FOR SAID CYLINDER, SAID QUILL COMPRISING AN ELONGATED CASING MOUNTED IN SAID WALLS AND BRIDGING SAID SPACE, SAID CASING HAVING AN OPEN INNER END COMMUNICATING WITH SAID PORT, SAID CASING ALSO HAVING AN OUTER END PROJECTING OUTSIDE SAID WATER JACKET WALL, MEANS SEALING SAID CASING TO SAID WATER JACKET WALL WHEREBY TO PREVENT COOLING WATER IN SAID SPACE FROM LEAKING OUT AROUND SAID CASING, A CARTRIDGE REMOVABLY DISPOSED IN SAID CASING AND ACCESSIBLE FROM OUTSIDE OF SAID WATER JACKET WALL, A LUBRICANT SUPPLY CHANNEL EXTENDING LENGTHWISE ALONG THE INTERIOR OF SAID QUILL FROM A POINT OUTSIDE OF SAID WATER JACKET WALL, SAID CHANNEL DEFINED AT LEAST IN PART BY SAID CARTRIDGE, MEANS FOR CONNECTING SAID CHANNEL TO LUBRICANT SUPPLY, SAID CONNECTING MEANS INCLUDING A CHECK VALVE INTERPOSED BETWEEN SAID CHANNEL AND SAID SUPPLY, SAID CARTRIDGE ALSO COMPRISING A CHAMBER CONNECTING WITH SAID CHANNEL AND HAVING A VALVE OUTLET COMMUNICATING WITH SAID PORT, A VALVE SEAT SURROUNDING SAID VALVE OUTLET, AN AXIALLY MOVABLE VALVE IN SAID CHAMBER ADAPTED TO CLOSE OFF SAID OUTLET WHEN SEATED ON SAID SEAT, SPRING MEANS NORMALLY BIASING SAID VALVE INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID SEAT, AND A SHOULDER ON SAID VALVE EXPOSED TO LUBRICANT CONTAINED IN SAID CHAMBER, MEANS FOR SUBJECTING SAID LUBRICANT SUPPLY TO A PRESSURE TO OPEN SIMULTANEOUSLY SAID CHECK VALVE AND SAID AXIALLY MOVABLE VALVE TO INJECT UNDER PRESSURE A SELECTED AMOUNT OF LUBRICANT INTO SAID CYLINDER THROUGH SAID PORT, SAID INJECTED AMOUNT BEING EQUAL TO THE QUANTITY OF LUBRICANT FORCED PAST SAID CHECK VALVE BY SAID PRESSURE, SAID INJECTED AMOUNT FURTHER BEING DELIVERED IN PHASE WITH SAID INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE CYCLE AND AT THE SAME PRESSURE AS SAID SUPPLY MEANS. 